Data related to incidents from automated vehicle trials with a safety driver would be captured under standard incident report that the Department for Transport regularly publishes. Companies wishing to apply to operate commercial pilots will have to comply with mandated reporting requirements. These reports will initially be submitted to the Department. The Department is considering approaches around the publication of this information.

I refer the Noble Lord to my written ministerial statements on 3 July (UIN HLWS774) and 22 July (UIN HLWS884) which provided an update on progress achieved to date and details of next steps. These issues were most recently discussed at the Joint Ministerial Council, where the Minister for the Overseas Territories and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury again reinforced the need for previously agreed deadlines and commitments to be met, and called for prompt action to do so.

The MV Ruby has completed the successful discharge of her cargo and is currently undergoing repair in dry dock. The document referenced by the noble Lord was an internal briefing note and thus not prepared for publication, and we do not intend to provide any further documentation.

The interim chair of the Euston Partnership Board is John Reed, Managing Director of the Euston Partnership. A new chair will be announced in due course.

Details of the Board membership are published in the minutes from each meeting. The Euston Partnership Board last met on 14th November 2024.

As I say, we are looking at the calls for an office for the whistleblower. It is a proposal that I know attracts a great deal of support. We are considering other ideas as well, but we want to make sure that all the individuals my noble friend talks about have somewhere they can go and have their complaints taken seriously. We understand that. That requires changes in process and in procedure, but ultimately in culture so that these individuals are taken seriously. We will drive that forward and we will require employers to take these issues seriously, but for the moment we are still working on whether we need a specific office for the whistleblower.

Annual Fire Drills are required to be established and implemented by the Responsible Persons as set out in Article 15 (a) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The records that have been possible to investigate do not provide detail of evacuations for the past 20 years. The information below, taken from Fire Safety Committee reports, details full evacuations across the Estate on the following dates:

2016: 29 February and 31 October

2017: 10 July

2018: 21 May and 17 December

2019: 24 June

2020: Evacuation drills were scheduled for June and December but were postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions and advice on social distancing

2021: 13 September

2022: 7 February and 6 December

2023: 22 May

1. All fire drills are undertaken across the whole of The Palace of Westminster.

2. The main Committee corridor is evacuated under the Palace of Westminster drill.

3. None of the drills listed above have been undertaken while the House is sitting. The Services Committee discussed a possible evacuation when the Palace is at its busiest at its July 2023 meeting.

4. The efficacy of the evacuation process relies on suitably trained staff across the estate to assist with each evacuation. House of Lords Doorkeepers have received specific fire safety training on the evacuation of the Chamber. Other areas are managed by Security staff and House of Lords administration staff who have volunteered to be Fire Marshals and have undertaken training on evacuations. Specific drills have used volunteers to simulate mobility impaired persons in June 2019 and December 2022, and as part of an evacuation of a Lords Committee drill in January 2020.

5. All drills incorporate the general public and all staff working in the area, they also incorporate any other events happening in the Palace at the time including line of route tours, catering events and educational tours.

6. All evacuations lead to reports issued to the Fire Safety Committee. Actions arising from these reports are communicated to the House of Lords Services Committee and are reported on by both the Director of Estates for the House of Lords and the Fire Safety Team. The minutes of the Services Committee are available online and in the Printed Paper Office.

The Estates and Fire Risk Management Team also report annually on the completion statistics for fire training across the House of Lords Estate and on the latest fire drills undertaken.

The Department has now published the six-monthly report on 19 June. We are currently assessing the impact of the recent pause in the development and construction of parts of HS2, including any delays and relevant cost changes. While it is too early to provide specific details at this stage, we acknowledge the importance of transparency and accountability in reporting such information to Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable.

As I mentioned in my previous response, external factors affected our original plans for an earlier publication of the HS2 Parliamentary Report, which was further delayed as it has taken time to work through the implications of the Spring Budget. We remain committed to transparency and providing timely and accurate updates on HS2, with the next report due for publication imminently.

A consultation took place with relevant construction industry and water sector stakeholders. Those consulted included construction trade and legal associations, individual contractor companies, consultancies, water utility companies and other government departments. A number of individual responses were also received. Consultees included:

• Addleshaw Goddard LLP
• Ashurst LLP
• Balfour Beatty
• BAM Construction
• Build UK
• Civil Engineering Contractors Association
• CMS LLP
• Construction Law Society
• Construction Leadership Council Business Models Contractual Working Group
• Costain
• Crown Commercial Services
• Deloitte
• Diamond Transmission
• EY
• Infrastructure Projects Authority
• KMPG
• National Grid ESO
• Severn Trent Water
• Southern Water
• Transmission Investment / Amber Infrastructure
• United Utilities
• Water UK Roundtable – Yorkshire Water, South West Water, Welsh Water, United Utilities.

In addition, engagement was undertaken with each Devolved Administration.

No projects are either included or excluded by the design of this measure, but to benefit from the Exclusion Order they would need to be consistent with the provisions of the statutory instrument. Projects designated for delivery by way of Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC) need to satisfy various selection criteria including, that the estimated whole-life totex (i.e. capital expenditure plus operations and maintenance costs) of the project is likely to exceed a threshold (currently set at £100m), and that delivering the project via DPC has the potential to offer best value for money for customers compared to delivery by the relevant water undertaker.

Trade Envoys and Special Representatives appointed by the Department are required to declare gifts and hospitality that they receive in their roles. Trade Envoys and Special Representatives are also required to declare any interests (perceived or actual). The Department for International Trade (DIT) considers if any mitigations are needed on a case-by-case basis. We have no plans to publish a list of all such gifts and conflicts of interest for the last 10 years. It is the responsibility of the Trade Envoy to inform the Department of any change in their circumstances, and the Government can terminate any appointment where appropriate declarations have not been made.

Where an application is made to the Probate Service (part of the Family Division of the High Court) for a grant of probate in respect of a will, the general rule is that the will is attached to the grant of probate and made public. However, under Section 124 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, this is “subject to the control of the High Court and the probate rules”. Rule 58 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 makes provision for the Court to determine that a will shall not be open to inspection if “such inspection would be undesirable or otherwise inappropriate”.

The Government has no current plans to change these rules. It is for the Court to determine, on an application by the personal representatives of the testator, whether any will should be closed to public inspection.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued for speed limit offences. These data can be found in the ‘Police Powers and Procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales

Information on the nationality of number plates connected to speeding offences is not collected or held by the Home Office.

The Promoter’s evidence to the Select Committee only includes information relevant to the matters raised by each petitioner. The Promoter was not asked about NDAs, and so did not mention them to the Select Committees that considered petitions against the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill in either House whether any of the petitioners against the Bill had entered into a NDA (or confidentiality agreement) with HS2 Ltd. Nor has the Promoter done so for petitioners against the High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Bill. The Select Committees are not inquiries into HS2 or HS2 Ltd – they are a quasi-judicial process that considers requests for changes to the scheme, made by petitioners.

Confidentiality agreements preserve confidentiality when two or more parties exchange sensitive information. These agreements offer protection when parties want to share confidential or commercially sensitive information with each other but need to make sure that the information is not shared more widely. Like any contract, these agreements are entered into by mutual consent, and are utilised to protect not just HS2 Ltd’s confidential information but the confidential information of the third party/ies involved. They provide value to the taxpayer by reducing uncertainty and by helping to reduce generalised blight.

A confidentiality agreement would not prevent a signatory from petitioning against the Bill or appearing before a Select Committee in either House to raise the issues in its petition. It simply seeks to ensure that any confidential information shared between the parties under the terms of the agreement is not disclosed.

HS2 Ltd uses NDAs to enable the exchange of confidential information with individuals and organisations, who do so on a willing and consensual basis. As Nusrat Ghani MP made clear on 15 July 2019, HS2 Ltd takes its responsibilities on the use of NDAs seriously. While HS2 Ltd holds information on the parties it has signed NDAs with, it is not held in a format that can be disaggregated by category and as such it is unable to provide information on: the number of NDAs with consultancy firms; landowners negotiating compulsory purchase orders; and the number that were deemed "confidential and sensitive".

I can confirm that no NDAs have been signed by HS2 Ltd with police forces or with senior staff who have left the organisation; though a small number of Settlement Agreements have been signed with former staff which contain a confidentiality clause.

A response is provided to both 261785 and 261784 jointly, as the questions overlap. Since 1 January 2017, HS2 Ltd has entered into 47 Settlement Agreements with employees who no longer work for HS2 Ltd as at today’s date. Specifically, 26 of the 47 were employees who had themselves applied to be made redundant as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme that HS2 Limited ran in 2016. Of the remainder, 3 were with employees who were being made redundant as part of 2 discrete organisational changes. Of the 47, 10 Settlement Agreements have been entered into with staff who were members of HS2’s senior leadership team or higher (7 of the 10 were part of the voluntary redundancy programme mentioned above).

The Settlement Agreement contains terms relating to the cessation of the employment relationship between HS2 Ltd and the employee (e.g. termination date, payment owed for annual leave not taken, any other payments owed, etc). There are mutual confidentiality obligations in each Settlement Agreement but these do not apply where information is required to be disclosed by law OR where a protected disclosure is made by the employee under whistleblowing legislation. Of the 47 Settlement Agreements referred to above, no employee has raised any such protected disclosure (in relation to HS2 Ltd’s financial statements or otherwise). HS2 Ltd has not entered into any Non-Disclosure Agreements with any HS2 employee.

Before any Settlement Agreement is signed by HS2 Ltd and the employee, a certificate from an independent legal adviser must be provided, evidencing that legal advice has been given to the employee as to the effect of the terms of the Agreement. This process can lead to requests for changes to the template Agreement, which HS2 Ltd accepts where feasible.

A response is provided to both 261785 and 261784 jointly, as the questions overlap. Since 1 January 2017, HS2 Ltd has entered into 47 Settlement Agreements with employees who no longer work for HS2 Ltd as at today’s date. Specifically, 26 of the 47 were employees who had themselves applied to be made redundant as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme that HS2 Limited ran in 2016. Of the remainder, 3 were with employees who were being made redundant as part of 2 discrete organisational changes. Of the 47, 10 Settlement Agreements have been entered into with staff who were members of HS2’s senior leadership team or higher (7 of the 10 were part of the voluntary redundancy programme mentioned above).

The Settlement Agreement contains terms relating to the cessation of the employment relationship between HS2 Ltd and the employee (e.g. termination date, payment owed for annual leave not taken, any other payments owed, etc). There are mutual confidentiality obligations in each Settlement Agreement but these do not apply where information is required to be disclosed by law OR where a protected disclosure is made by the employee under whistleblowing legislation. Of the 47 Settlement Agreements referred to above, no employee has raised any such protected disclosure (in relation to HS2 Ltd’s financial statements or otherwise). HS2 Ltd has not entered into any Non-Disclosure Agreements with any HS2 employee.

Before any Settlement Agreement is signed by HS2 Ltd and the employee, a certificate from an independent legal adviser must be provided, evidencing that legal advice has been given to the employee as to the effect of the terms of the Agreement. This process can lead to requests for changes to the template Agreement, which HS2 Ltd accepts where feasible.

We regularly work with businesses and stakeholders to ensure they are prepared for our exit from the EU. This engagement includes ministerial and official-level industry roundtables, events and forums, many of which have not been covered by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). NDAs have, however, been used where appropriate to protect the commercial interests of businesses and to facilitate close working and open discussion between the Department and stakeholders.

HS2 Ltd has had a Whistleblowing Policy since 2014. It was updated in 2018 to incorporate the launch of the “Speak Out” reporting line. The Whistleblowing Policy is published internally on the HS2 Ltd intranet. HS2 Ltd is now working on launching the “Speak Out” reporting line outside of HS2 Ltd. At present, where any whistleblowing allegations are raised to the HS2 Helpdesk, such allegations are referred to HS2’s independent “Speak Out” line supplier.

Network Rail’s whistleblowing policy is published online on the Network Rail website and is available at:

https://cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Speak-Out-Policy-2017.pdf